I live in a 3600 square foot house in Southern California, and my electric bills are usually in the $50-$100 range in the fall, winter, and spring, and about $10-$20 in the summer.
The reason why my summer electric bills are so low is because SoCal Edison has this program where if you allow them to install a flex limiter on your A/C, meaning that during periods of peak usage in the community you allow them to shut off your A/C for 5 minutes out of every 30 minutes you try to use it, you get huge rebates on your electric bill during the summer. To me, this is a good thing. I don't mind giving up a little bit of my A/C time, and the savings really add up on this program.
As a matter of fact, since I don't ever run my A/C constantly, I only remember experiencing the 5 minute shut-off once in the entire 3 years that I've been a part of this program. If your local electric company has something like this, I would highly recommend it.
